Tampa, Florida — It took William Heher just over eight hours to secure victory in Event 3 of the Winter Poker Open Sunday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The $250 buy-in Deep Stack tournament was played over a turbo structure with 15-minute levels throughout. From 165 starting entries, the field was down to four by about 10:30pm. With blinds of 50,000/100,000, the average stack was only about eight bigs. After much chop talk, the final four players agreed to a deal that saw Heher, the chip leader, go down as the winner.

Heher is 23 years old and resides in nearby Orlando where he works as a carpenter. He beat out a tough field in the turbo facing off against Seminole Hard Rock Tampa poker ambassador Wally Maddah at the final table before Maddah bowed out seventh. Antuan Bunkley followed Maddah not too long after busting fifth and the final four got a deal done.

In all, the tournament took about eight-and-a-half hours to play out with Heher boasting an hourly of about $830. For Heher, this marked his first recorded tournament cash and he got on the board in style making it a win.

Event 3 marked the first of two $250 turbo tournaments on the 2017 WPO schedule. The second, Event 6, takes place Sunday, December 17 alongside Day 2 of the Main Event.

We’re just moments away from kickoff of another Winter Poker Open trophy event at the Seminole Hard Rock. Event 3, a $250 buy-in Deep Stack Turbo tournament, begins at 2pm. Up for grabs is the winner’s share of a $20,000 guaranteed prize pool along with the property’s token guitar trophy.

Here are the details:

2pm: $250 Deep Stack Turbo NLH Re-Entry

$250 buy-in, $20,000 guaranteed

20,000 chips and 15-minute levels

Registration and unlimited re-entry available until the start of Level 13 (~5:30pm)